Many modern devices can be used to provide visual content to a user such as, for example, a virtual reality environment that can simulate the user's three-dimensional physical presence and environment and allow the user to interact with virtual objects or elements in the simulated environment or an augmented reality environment. In some instances, audio feedback (e.g., sounds) associated with the visual content (e.g., a three-dimensional video, three-dimensional animations, etc.) can be provided to the user, along with the visual content.
In some instances, providing visual content may necessitate providing three-dimensional audio feedback (e.g., audio feedback that conveys a location of a sound source in the visual content). For example, if a user is interacting with a virtual reality environment that includes various virtual characters that are speaking, comprehensive audio feedback should allow a user to perceive audio from a first virtual character as being louder as the user turns towards the first virtual character and perceive audio from the other virtual characters as being lower as the user turns away from the other virtual characters.
However, current solutions for capturing and generating audio feedback for visual content are limited. For instance, some existing systems for capturing and providing spatial (e.g., three-dimensional) audio signals for visual content may necessitate equipment or tools that may be expensive, complex, or unavailable. As an example, visual content can be captured using a mobile phone and uploaded to content data networks, such as, YouTube. However, a user viewing the visual content is not provided with spatial (e.g., three-dimensional) audio feedback when the user is viewing the visual content.
Moreover, conventional systems and methods for capturing and providing audio feedback for visual content may be limited to capturing and outputting signals that are one-dimensional or two-dimensional, which may not convey a perception or sensation of a location, depth, or position of a sound source in the visual content. In some instances, outputting one or two-dimensional audio feedback can create the impression that all audio content or feedback associated with the visual content comes from a particular point (e.g., originates from the same point in a virtual reality environment). Thus, two different sounds associated with two different elements of a virtual reality environment would be perceived by a user as originating from the same point in a space (e.g., from the same point in the virtual reality environment). In still another example, outputting one or two-dimensional audio feedback can cause a user to perceive the location of two different sounds independent of the user's viewing direction.
Thus, some existing systems and methods for generating and providing audio for visual content (e.g., a virtual reality environment) provide an experience that is one-dimensional or two-dimensional from the user's perspective. As a result, the user may not experience a three-dimensional auditory sensation when viewing or interacting with the visual content.
Therefore, some existing systems and methods for capturing, generating, and providing audio feedback for visual content present disadvantages such as, but not limited to, those discussed above. For these and other reasons, improved techniques and systems for capturing, generating, and providing audio feedback for visual content are therefore desirable.